Limited time

“They grow up so fast.” You’ve heard that a lot! Focusing on time with your children can help you savor the limited months/years you may have with them.

Here’s a suggestion, adapted from a random e-mail that was circulating, to help remind yourself to Act NOW.

Consider making this marble activity, as well as spending more time with your child, your New Year’s Resolutions.

ACTION IDEAS:

• Think about a milestone date when your child will reach a certain age, e.g. they become teenagers, they will leave high school, or some other marker signifying they won’t be as available to spend time with you. Calculate how many weekends are left until this date. Do this calculation for each of your children.

• Buy a bag of marbles. Find a clear container(s) and put it in a spot that you will see regularly. Fill it with the same number of marbles as the number of weekends you calculated above. Initially you should have one marble representing each weekend until the selected date(s).

• Each week throw away one marble from each of your children’s containers. You must throw away the marble to remind yourself that the time is gone forever. This process should help you to refocus on your priorities, and to plan accordingly.

• Consider “throwing away the marbles” right before you do your weekly planning.

The local fathering effort, in cooperation with the National Center for Fathering, provides bi-weekly action ideas to stimulate conversation between fathers and parents.